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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Brittonia 63: 470 (469-474, figs. 1 & 2). 2011

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Isotype -- X. Cornejo
Specimen 2: Isotype -- X. Cornejo

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori & Xavier Cornejo

Type: Type: Ecuador. Esmeraldas: Bilsa Biological station, Sendero Verde, 79°44' W 0°21' N, 500 m, 16 Oct 2009 (fl, fr), X. Cornejo & A. Macías 8171 (holotype: NY; isotypes: COL, GUAY, K, MO, QCNE, US, USM).

Description: Understory to canopy trees, 15-35 m × 30-60 cm, the trunk with low, thick, poorly-developed buttresses. Bark shallowly fissured, less so in smaller trees, the outer bark thin, the inner bark thick, white tinged with pink. Stems 7-12 mm diam., finely puberulous to glabrous, the older stems progressively more glabrous, with only a few, scattered, inconspicuous lenticels. Leaves: petioles grooved adaxially, rounded abaxially, hemispherical in cross section, 2.5-4 cm long × 7-12 mm diam., glabrous to puberulous; blades oblanceolate, 31-81 × 12-22 cm, chartaceous, with scattered reddish-brown punctations and small, whitish lepidote scales abaxially, the base obtuse to rounded (somewhat auriculate in Dodson 6194), the margins entire, the apex acuminate; venation brochidodromous throughout, the midrib broadly grooved and flat basally, narrowly grooved and salient apically on adaxial surface, markedly salient abaxially, the secondary veins in 31-40 pairs, slightly impressed adaxially, salient abaxially, the marginal vein conspicuous, the tertiary veins reticulate. Inflorescences ramiflorous, axial, or appearing terminal, spicate, with two orders of branching, sometimes massive, 8.5-100 cm long, the rachises with white colored, curved downward cataphyll scars, densely puberulous (especially when young), the trichomes very short, rust-colored; pedicels absent to 2 mm long below articulation, the bracts narrowly ovate, ca. 12 × 8 mm, caducous, cucullate, somewhat carinate, puberulous, the bracteoles narrowly ovate, 8 × 6 mm, caducous, cucullate, somewhat carinate, puberulous. Flowers when leaves present, ca. 6 cm diam.; hypanthium 4 mm long from articulation to base of calyx-lobes, truncate at articulation, finely sulcate between calyx-lobes downward onto hypanthium, especially when dry, puberulous; calyx-lobes 6, ovate to narrowly ovate, obliquely oriented upward in relation to axis of flower, 7-13 × 6-12 mm, thick, markedly carinate adaxially, concave adaxially, green, the bases imbricate to ½ length, the margins entire, thin and contrasting with carinate middle, the apices acute to rounded; petals 6, oblong to elliptic, 2 oriented away from entrance into flower (anterior direction) and 4 oriented away from ligule (posterior direction), 25-35 × 20-25 mm (in vivo), thick, pale yellow to yellow; androecium zygomorphic, the staminal ring with ca. 400 stamens, with well-developed staminal lip, 1-2 mm wide, the filaments clavate, 1.5-2 mm long, the anthers 0.5-1 mm long, the ligule well-developed, differentiated into appendage-free ligule and hood, the hood with a triple coil, with vestigial stamens on outside but not on inside of coils, pale yellow, the hood appendages without antherodes; ovary half-inferior, 4-locular, the number of ovules per locule not determined, inserted on floor of locule, the summit umbonate, the style not well-differentiated from summit of ovary, obconical, erect, without stylar collar. Fruits depressed globose, 9-11 × 10-13 cm, the calyx-lobes persistent in young fruits but not woody, the infra-calycine zone truncate from calycine ring to pedicel/hypanthium, ca. 1 cm wide, the supra-calycine zone flared outward, ca. 5-6 cm wide, the operculum occupying one-half or slightly more of fruit length, convex, without or with scarcely developed umbo, the pericarp ca. 7 mm thick, brown tinged with green when fresh, brown when dry, 8 mm thick. Seeds ca. 5-16 per fruit, usually wedge-shaped in cross-section, the outer surface hemi-spherical, the two sides flat, 4.5-5 × 2-3.5 cm, the veins not visible on surface of fresh or dried seeds, the testa thin, finely tuberculate or rough; surrounded by a white, rubbery, spreading aril penetrated by vascular tissue, ca. 2 mm thick.

Common names: Quiebra hacha, sabroso (Dodson 6194; Dodson & Gentry, 1978), sandapaluchi (Tipaz 2650), tete (Quelal et al. 210).

Distribution: Known only from NW Ecuador from near seal level to 1900 m elevation.

Ecology: A locally common understory to canopy tree of old growth wet forest in non-flooded areas . Sometimes persisting in disturbed areas near primary forests.

Phenology: Flowers have been collected in Mar, Apr, Aug, Jun, Oct, and Nov and fruits in Jan, Feb, March, and Oct.

Pollination: No information record but other species with coiled androecial hoods and yellow flower color are pollinated by bees that collect nectar from the inner apex of the androecial hood.

Dispersal: No information recorded for this or any other species of Eschweilera with a spreading aril. We hypothesize that the seeds of this species are dispersed by a mammal that eats the tissue surrounding the seed and discards the seed away from the parent tree.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: This species can be recognized by the very large leaves with impressed secondary veins adaxially and very small, whitish papillae (best seen with 40× magnification) abaxially; inflorescences longer than other known species of Eschweilera; slightly sulcate hypanthium (especially after drying) which is truncate at the base; staminal lip 1-2 mm wide surrounding the outer and lateral sides of the staminal ring; an androecial hood with a triple coil; large fruits with the infra-calycine zone truncate from the calycine ring to the pedicel/hypanthium, the supracalycine zone flared outward, and the operculum occupying ½ of the fruit length; and seeds surrounded a by a white, rubbery coat penetrated by vascular tissue, and a rough or slightly tuberculate testa.

Taxonomic notes: Three-coiled androecial hoods and spreading arils (including the unusual seed coat of this species) co-occur in Eschweilera awaensis and this combination is found more frequently in species of northwestern South America into eastern Panama (e.g., E. aguilarii S. A. Mori [white petals and yellow androecial hoods], E. amplexifolia S. A. Mori [pink to red petals and yellow androecial hoods], E. calyculata Pittier [pinkish or reddish-tinged petals and androecial hoods], E. collinsii Pittier [usually white petals but those sometimes tinged with pink and white tinged with yellow androecial hoods) S. A. Mori, E. integrifolia (Ruiz & Pav. ex Miers) R. Knuth [red to dark purple petals and androecial hoods], and E. sessilis A. C. Sm. [pink to red petals and yellow androecial hoods]. Nevertheless, at least E. andina (Rusby) J. F. Macbr. (petals and androecial hoods red) and E. ovalifolia (DC.) Nied. (petals and androecial hoods yellow), also with three-coiled androecia and spreading arils, occur in western Amazonia. This relationship, however, is not perfect; for example, E. pedicellata (Rich.) S. A. Mori from northeastern South America (Mori & Prance, 1990) has an incipient third coil and lateral arils (white tinged with pink or intense pink petals and androecial hoods) and E. antioquensis Dugand & Daniel (red petals and yellow tinged with red androecial hoods), E. caudiculata R. Knuth (purple to red flowers and androecial hoods), E. jacquelyneae S. A. Mori (red flowers and red androecial hoods), and E. rimbachii Standl. (dark purple to red flowers and androecial hoods) possess three-coiled androecia and a specialized aril characterized by its lateral position but different from the more common lateral aril because they are thicker and tend to cover one or even both ends of the seed. We call these half I-beam arils because they sometimes overlap both ends of the seeds and then appear like half of an I-beam used in construction of large buildings (note, however, that they sometimes only overlap one end of the seed). A recent molecular study indicates that these species form a clade separate from the much larger clade of species with a double coil and lateral arils (Mori et al., 2007). Huang (2010) included species with half I-beam arils in her analysis and demonstrated that they grouped within the clade of species with triple coils and spreading arils. Molecular data for this new species is not yet available; thus, further study is needed to determine the relationships of it with other species with different seed coat and aril types. Eschweilera awaensis is similar in morphology to another new species of Eschweilera from western Colombia (represented by Faber-Langendoen 727 [NY], Gentry & Monsalve 48417 [NY], Gentry et al., 30143, 47914, 53640 [NY]; Monsalve 1169 [NY]) but differs from it by petiolate (versus sessile or nearly sessile) leaves; axillary or terminal (versus cauline) inflorescences; truncate (versus tapered) hypanthia, and finely tuberculate (versus smooth) testae. The petioles, leaf blade size, and flower color of Eschweilera sclerophylla Cuatrec. are similar to those of E. awaensis but that species differs from the latter in leaf venation (secondary veins eucamptrodromous toward base and brochidodromous toward apex versus brochidodromous throughout), inflorescence branching and position (unbranched, cauline, and short versus branched, terminal or axillary, and long), and locule number (2 versus 4). Eschweilera pachyderma Cuatrec. is also morphologically similar but differs from this new species by the relatively short inflorescences (5-14 versus 8.5-100 cm), rachises of the inflorescences with numerous and conspicuous (versus few and not conspicuous) lenticels, relatively small flowers as shown in the shorter calyx-lobes (5 versus 7-13 mm long), and red to purple (versus yellow) petals. We are not certain of the nature of the rubbery coat surrounding the seeds of this new species and for the time being we consider it to have a spreading aril species.

Conservation: Eschweilera awaensis occurs in the Reservas Etnica Awá, Cotacachi-Cayapas, and Mache Chindul, which belong to the Ecuadorian national system of protected areas (SNAP, in Spanish). Outside of these areas, it is represented by a small population of a few mature individuals in the private forest reserve of the Rio Palenque Biological Station. We are afraid that the population of Centinela has been lost because of deforestation. Because of the steady logging and deforestation even in protected areas in western Ecuador, we suggest that this new species be assigned the IUCN conservation status of near threatened, NT (IUCN, 2001).

Uses: None recorded.

Etymology: The epithet refers to the Awá (or Kwaiker) indigenous people who inhabit the area of northern Ecuador (ca. 3,000 individuals) and adjacent southern Colombia (ca. 12,000 individuals) (Orejuela, 1999). Do not confuse this tribe of Amerindians with the Awá people of Amazonian Brazil (Wikipedia, 2010). Ecuadorean Awá settlements are dispersed over about one million hectares straddling the border between Ecuador and Colombia The Awá have suffered from incursion into their lands by loggers and farmers. In an attempt to protect them and the habitat in which they live, their homeland was proposed as the Awá International Biosphere Reserve (Binationial Plan Awá Project, 1987), which has not yet been realized. In Ecuador, some of the Awá people live in the Reserva Etnica Awá which offers them some protection from the steady rate of deforestation occurring in other parts of Ecuador. Because Eschweilera awaensis is a species of old growth forests, the future of the traditional way of life of the Awá people is intertwined with the protection of this and other species of old growth forests found in their homeland.

Source: Based on X. Cornejo & S. A. Mori (Cornejo & Mori, 2012).

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Eschweilera awaensis S.A.Mori & Cornejo: [Article] Cornejo, Xavier & Mori, S. A. 2011. and (Lecythidaceae), two new species from northwestern Ecuador. Brittonia. 63 (4): 469-477.